A few days before their wedding day, a Gauteng couple faced a frightening fork in the road when the soon-to-be husband was in a car accident. Determined to honour their promise of commitment to one another, the pair got the hospital’s ward to play host to a wedding:
Springs, South Africa (14 December 2023) — Hospitals have almost always been a space of paradoxes. Health and hope battle illness and fear. And stress and relief live in the same rooms. But, they’re also usually a place—alongside airports—where love can be so abundantly evident. The latter was the case for a couple from Daveyton who decided to choose commitment over ceremony and opted to marry on the day they had promised to each other.
Godfrey Maboi and Paulinah Moghale had arranged their wedding date for 10 December 2023. It was a day they’d both been looking forward to as they finally geared up to take their biggest steps as a couple together after a 28-year-long love story.
But on 02 December, Godfrey was rushed to hospital after a terrible car accident. Bedridden and in a bad way, he would’ve missed the day he and Paulinah had been planning for ages.
Then something really special happened. The Far East Rand Hospital in Springs decided that they could have their wedding in Godfrey’s ward (largely thanks to the couple’s determination to see their wedding day through).
Instead of best men and women, they had hospital staff members. Instead of their family and friends smiling faces in person, they got to see it all through video calls. Instead of ceremony being the main focus, commitment was.
Even MECs like Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko caught wind of the special gesture, and shared that the couple’s is a story of inspiration for others who face unforeseen challenges. She added that “irrespective of the obstacles one encounters in life, there is always a way.”
In a world where so many are more focused on how their wedding will look on Instagram than the actual commitment of the affair, this Gauteng couple reminded South Africans that a little substance and sticking to a commitment is the most important ingredient to any real love story. And indeed, that where there is love, there is always a way.
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